Adam in Romans 1

I’ve been seeing references to Morna Hooker’s article “Adam in Romans 1” for years ( NTS 6, 297-306), but have just today read through it. It’s a very provocative piece of work, and deserves its wide citation. Hooker carefully catalogues the terminological parallels between Romans 1 and Genesis 1 (obvious references to creation in Rom 1; likeness and image in close conjunction; a list of animals that follows the order of creation in Gen 1) and also shows that the degenerative sequence in Rom 1 matches the fall of Adam in many respects. One of the most interesting and persuasive parts of the article came in her opening observations about Paul’s citation of Ps 106:20 in Rom 1:23. As Hooker points out, Paul replaces the Psalm’s phrase (LXX) “in the likeness of an ox that eats grass” with the phrase “in the likeness of the image of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed beasts and of reptiles.” This clearly bends the Psalm, which is describing the incident of the golden calf, in the direction of Genesis 1, adding “image” and the list of animals to the Psalm citation. This also suggests that Paul discerned a parallel between Adam’s fall in Eden and the fall of Israel at Sinai. All in all, a satisfying and stimulating article.